DARDANELLE — A dedication ceremony for the Yell County Vietnam War memorial was held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Brearley Cemetery. The project, created by Dardanelle native Aaron Hetland, fulfills his Boy Scout community project, which is required to complete the rank of Eagle Scout.

Hetland, a member of Boy Scout Troop 221, designed the memorial to honor five Yell County natives who fell during the Vietnam War. He based his plans off the troop’s visit to the war memorials in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2012.

Lyle Hawkins, troop scout master, said Hetland and the other scouts were deeply impacted by the memorials, especially the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

“The war memorials hit all the boys pretty hard,” Hawkins said. “They looked at the memorials, and they etched some names off the wall and began to realize that these were all individuals.”

After the Washington, D.C. trip, Hetland said he approached Hawkins with his plan to build a localized memorial for fallen Vietnam War veterans.

“When I saw how the Vietnam Veterans Memorial affected people, I started thinking about it,” Hetland said. “We had a national memorial, we had a state memorial, but not a local one. That’s when I told my the chief what I wanted to do.”

Hetland then proposed his memorial ideas to three businesses — Alpha Counter Tops Inc., McGee Monuments and Godfrey and Black Brick and Stone — and to Brearley Cemetery, all of which provided Hetland special offers for his project.

Initiating his project in late February, Hetland worked for approximately three months, officially completing the project in the latter part of May. Looking back on the progression of the memorial project, Hetland said he has a feeling of accomplishment.

“This is probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” Hetland said. “I’m not really sure how else to describe it. It’s something that I hope will be there for generations and generations.”